Saturday, February 04, 2012

Bradley Manning Nobel Peace Prize Nomination 2012

February 1st 2012 the entire parliamentary group of The Movement of the Icelandic Parliament nominated Private Bradley Manning for the Nobel Peace Prize. Following is the reasoning we sent to the committee explaining why we felt compelled to nominate Private Bradley Manning for this important recognition of an individual effort to have an impact for peace in our world.

Our letter to the Nobel Peace Prize Committee:

We have the great honor of nominating Private First Class Bradley Manning for the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize. Manning is a soldier in the United States army who stands accused of releasing hundreds of thousands of documents to the whistleblower website WikiLeaks. The leaked documents pointed to a long history of corruption, war crimes, and imperialism by the United States government in international dealings. These revelations have fueled democratic uprising around the world, including a democratic revolution in Tunisia. According to journalists, his alleged actions helped motivate the democratic Arab Spring movements, shed light on secret corporate influence on our foreign policies, and most recently contributed to the Obama Administration agreeing to withdraw all U.S.troops from the occupation in Iraq.

Bradley Manning has been incarcerated for well over a year by the U.S. government without a trial. He spent over ten months of that time period in solitary confinement, conditions which experts worldwide have criticized as torturous. Juan Mendez, the United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on Torture and Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment, has repeatedly requested and been denied a private meeting with Manning to assess his conditions.

The documents made public by WikiLeaks should never have been kept from public scrutiny. The revelations – including video documentation of an incident in which American soldiers gunned down Reuters journalists in Iraq – have helped to fuel a worldwide discussion about America’s overseas engagements, civilian casualties of war, imperialistic manipulations, and rules of engagement. Citizens worldwide owe a great debt to the WikiLeaks whistleblower for shedding light on these issues, and so I urge the Committee to award this prestigious prize to accused whistleblower Bradley Manning.

Thank you for supporting this man who deserves and needs our solidarity. I realize that many people still don't know about Bradley Manning. I live in Italy and here the press seems to ignore the whole case. Let us wake up the world!

Thank you so much for nominating Bradley Manning. It is my sincere wish that he be honored with the Nobel Peace Prize. In addition to recognizing his courageous act, it would help put tremendous pressure on the US to deal with him justly.

Seems to me that the anger of the"Radical Center" knows NOT whereof he speaks! Pity. All goodness and blessings to the young lad who saw a crime and exposed it for what it was - his moral duty - which comes above LAW!! Love/peace,Elizabeth

Radical Centre, it was not Bradley Manning who killed your buddies. It was Washington, the war profiteering corporations, lobby groups such as Israel and the belief by Americans in a manifest destiny to rule the world.

Bradley Manning was trying to save your buddies and all the innocent men, women and children they were killing.

from joeinreno"Common experience shows how much rarer is moral courage than physical bravery. A thousand men will march to the mouth of the cannon where one man will dare espouse an unpopular cause." - Clarence Darrow

This is total nonsense. America is absolutely entitled to diplomatic secrecy, as is every government (including the most progressive Nordic ones). What your bullshit nomination letter fails to mention is that a.) the majority of the documents show the US largely living up to its international responsibilities trying to interdict terrorism, stop the spread of nuclear weapons, etc. Does it also do things in its own interests? Of course, AS DOES EVERY GOVERNMENT IN THE WORLD.What Manning did was TREASONOUS, a violation of his national security oath, and condemnable. But even if you're not an American, you can't argue with this: in giving the cables to Assange, he risked they would eventually be published online unredacted, which they presently are. As such, you can rest assured that people who risked their lives to act, heroically, as sources for some of these cables have since been killed.This nomination is absurd, self-righteous twaddle by a bunch of political radicals. If Birgsdottir et al believe in radical transparency, then she should use her position to get access to classified Icelandic documents, publish them, and rot in prison for their misguided beliefs.

LOL...showing yourself as an idiot in your own words, priceless.You are asking the organization to award the prize to Manning based on the fact that he exposed not only “war crimes” taking place in Iraq, but on his heroic suffering as he remains “incarcerated for well over a year by the U.S. government without a trial.” You go on to describe his treatment as having been, “criticized as torturous.”

Well.. that just sounds awful. I wonder who is responsible for that horrible treatment? Oh wait... isn’t it your 2009 winner of the same prize? Honestly, lady… do you even read the things you write before you publish them?

With a very few exceptions, this comment thread consists of nothing but an echo chamber. Me too, me too, me too. A bunch of parrots that are easily led around by their noses into ridiculous, vicious ideologies. Much like the terrorists are brainwashed into believing that blowing up civilians is the right thing to do. Don't even say "we don't advocate murder". That meme doesn't fly in the face of the fact that radical leftist ideology (socialism/communism) has killed Tens of Millions. You folks profess to be against violence to others, as long as the others agree with you. Any dissent is grounds for swift, violent reactions to the dissenters.

What a bunch of fake 'intellectuals' you all are. Just because you can fool the useful idiots into believing you, the rest of us see exactly what you are.

Peace prize?!?! What a joke! What Manning did was dangerous at best and, I am sure, will be found as treason in the end. And if he was really doing this because he was taking the moral high ground and was showing the world the war crimes of the US, why didn't he stand up for what he did. No, instead he claimed he was innocent because he was dealing with thoughts of tran sexuality and homosexuality. Pathetic! He didn't pick out the stuff that exposed any specific crime, he mass dumped a bunch of information into Assange's hands. The hands of a man who, by the way, is hiding out so he can avoid sexual assault charges. Sure, there is no direct like between the information released and any deaths, but let be real here, it's been 2 years - hardly enough time to go through 750,000 pages of material! And whose to say someone listed in those documents won't one day be killed based on the fact his/her name was found on wikileaks?!?

As someone who watched her husband leave me and our new-born son to fight in Iraq and he was there the same time the information Manning released was putting him and his fellow soldiers deeper into harms way, I am happy he is sitting behind bars and hope he remains there! I agree with the others who have said "it's too bad the took the death penalty off the table". He is no hero and he sure as hell does not deserve to stand beside Mandela and MLK! In nominating Manning, you dishonor them and others who were true "peace makers"!Radical Center and the other anonymous soldiers: Thank you for standing beside my husband and fighting for our country. I think the problem, clearly shown here, is the lack of real understanding by civilians of what war really is all about. They will never understand and will continue to enjoy their right to stupidity provided by you men and women in uniform. You are the true heroes!

Thank you for nominating Bradley Manning for the Nobel Peace Prize. How can we help make this so?In peace and beautyValerie GoodnessIGERT Fellow PhD CandidateSUNY Buffalo"I prefer a painful truth over any blissful fantasy," ~Bradley Manning~

Thank you so much for speaking out in support of this hero! The old adage,"No good deed goes unpunished." has never been truer, and PFC Manning deserves to be released and honored for being so brave. How can we make this happen?

As a young, misguided, man I served in the U.S. Army in Vietnam atrocity, was a combat soldier, wounded & decorated, retired Sgt. I, & my wife salute Bradley Manning as a shining example of "World-class Patriotism" and an exemplary standard of "Peace, Freedom & Democracy". A truly "World-class Hero". Thank you Bradley Manning, we send our heartfelt Love & Prayers!

I would like to ask everybody a hypothetical question.This is a very intense question,and I was kicked off Facebook for asking it.It goes out to every military branch.I ask the military troops not to lie to themselves and say this won't happen.The u.s. government has passed a law that says they can assassinate any body they say is a traitor,that includes the friends and family of our military troops.so here is my question to the military to see if they have a backbone to answer it.(What are you going to do when the government starts telling you that you have to kill your own friends and family are you still going to be their puppets and do it.)Which of you military have the backbone to answer this.And I ask the people who read this to ask this question to any military people they know and tell them not to lie to themselves.

Thank you for honoring a young man who has been lied about, tortured and imprisoned for an extremely long period of time before a trial date was even discussed. The most powerfully wealthy and abusive people in the world have accused Bradley Manning of revealing truths to protect and bring justice to those who committed genocidal murders of innocent-unarmed-families, men, women, children, reporters, and officials. Thank you to whoever the true suspect is and to Bradley Manning even if he is the scape goat and stands for those who have and are still trying to both SAVE FUTURE LIVES and bring justice to those people who were murdered. I believe the accusations made against Bradley Manning's desire to save the most vulnerable from the most powerful could be a similar comparison to the Nobel Peace winner in Africa of Nelson Mandela. Though it is not about a whole people being separated by skin color for an apartheid, it is about repressing a whole region of people. The U.S. and western powers have certainly committed the worst genocidal crimes and targeted a people of a similar religious and racial ethnic group because of their location in the world, perhaps to spread propaganda that they are all bad and to gain profits through their resources.

It would be nice if the British father, Shaker Aamer could also be nominated for a peace prize since he is not only a very vulnerable person speaking of justice to the most powerful and cruel, but has been in a very vulnerable position when he spoke out against his torturers of 10 years to tell them they have no right to torture to death people of one faith or even torture at all those people in the concentration camps. After going to Afghanistan similar to Greg Mortenson, the author of "3 Cups of Tea" had done, which was to help the poor dig water wells and build schools, Shaker Aamer was sold to the U.S. from the U.S.'s truck loads of cash to the very poor people in Afghanistan as a foreigner and without any kind of trial he was taken to the concentration camp in Guantanamo where he is the last British father to continue the torturous imprisonment for the 10th Year; Even though the British gov. wants this father returned to his family and like the other 14 British men who were unjustly tortured under the U.S. authority, receive the awarded $Millions of dollars of retribution.

I am the Cochair of the Colorado Green Party, from a 3rd Generation Coloradan and 3rd Generation Texan, a teacher, wife of over 30 yrs am an ashamed and saddened U.S. citizen and mother, who would like Bradley Manning freed, honored and returned to his family with more transparency provided to my people in the U.S. and the world about what the military, officials, agents, and hired by U.S. mercenaries have done. It is also a necessity for humanity to have accountability for the unnecessary hyenas war crimes committed under U.S. authority and military.

I would also desire to see Shaker Aamer returned to his wife and children in Britain who have nearly grown up without their father because of the most inhuman and barbarous of U.S. crimes against his man and others by keeping them in the torturous concentration camp even though they have be cleared for released since 2007.

While I applaud your effort to have her recognized, if you really want to properly reward her you need to respect her for who she is. Please change your petition to reflect her identity as a woman named 'Breanna'.

Bradley Manning reminds me of our Senator John Kerry who once stood against the military's errors by speaking up to powerful legislators about atrocities in Viet Nam. Maybe the true meaning of the peace prize might get leaked to the world and warmongers such as American corporations who profit off of slaughter will be exposed as the naked ugly dogs they are.

If Bradley Manning doesn't win, then Costa Rica should get the peace prize, since they have no standing army. Neither does Bermuda. Evolution means discarding things that never make us smart. Militarism makes every nation but two paranoid and dumb. What a waste of lives and money while corporate criminals fly in private jets.

Ms. Jonsdottir, I find it interesting that a public official in Iceland has enough free time on her hands to champion such a cause. Do politicians actually work in your country or is it strictly a part-time gig?

This is the best news I have heard in a while. It was at the top of my news feed and a big "Hell Yeah!" ripped from my lungs upon reading. I couldn't thank your committee enough, if I were able, I would give you guys a big hug. The fact that Manning did what he did is courageous and honorable. The system needs more men like him. This American salutes you.